Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups

All major religious groups in India have shown sharp declines in their fertility rates, limiting change in the country’s religious composition since 1951. Meanwhile, fertility differences between India’s religious groups are generally much smaller than they used to be.

Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Across the major religious groups, most people say it is very important to respect all religions to be “truly Indian.”

Globally, Muslims live in the biggest households, followed by Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated.

The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip, with both Protestantism and Catholicism experiencing losses of population share.

A declining share of Canadians identify as Christians. Most Canadians say religion’s influence in public life is waning in their country.

Southern Baptists are the largest evangelical Protestant group in the United States. Yet the total number of Southern Baptists is falling.

The global Muslim population is more concentrated in Islam’s main population centers than the global Christian population is for Christianity.

Germany has seen a dramatic shift away from Protestantism – one that has greatly outpaced a decline in the share of Germans who are Catholic.

While Slovakia is majority Catholic, around seven-in-ten Czechs are religiously unaffiliated – the highest share of unaffiliated adults in 34 European countries surveyed.

The Catholic Church remains closely tied to Europe. Catholics are the largest religious group in many of the continent’s most populous countries.